Reduce Noise

The Reduce Noise filter is new to Photoshop CS2 and is the most sophisticated method for reducing noise. It incorporates many of the tricks that we used to do piecemeal by using blending modes or applying filters to individual channels. It will often produce a result that looks smooth while retaining much of the detail from the original image (Figures 12.15 and 12.16). When applying the Reduce Noise filter, I suggest you start by moving all the sliders to the far left so they have no effect on the image.

Figure 12.15. Using the Reduce Noise filter with a Strength of 10 and a Preserve Details setting of 1 produced minimal distortion in the largest specks while making the smaller specks fade into their surroundings.